SB 105-FOSTER CARE/CINA/EDUCATION OF HOMELESS  CHAIR DAVIS announced consideration of SB 105 [Version E CSSB 105(EDC) was before the committee]. 2:07:52 PM TOM OBERMEYER, staff to Senator Davis, sponsor of SB 105, presented the sponsor statement and overview of changes in the proposed committee substitute (CS) labeled 26-LS0556\C. He explained that the word "commission" was changed to "institution" on page 3 in order to recognize that schools and institutions should be making the decision as to what is needed for the student rather than the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education. The other main change is that the stipend was reduced on pages 11-12 not to exceed nine months with different age parameters. The person has to be 18 or older, has to be participating in a services program and has contact with a social worker involved in the program. The stipend must be what is necessary to meet the individual's living expenses as determined by the department and it shall not exceed the daily rate provided for a licensed foster parent for the first six months of eligibility; and if it goes beyond that, it's not to exceed more than one half that amount for an additional three months. It also indicates that the department shall pay the stipend until the date that the individual reaches 21 years of age or has left out-of-home care for six months. He did not have a new fiscal note. 2:12:14 PM MIKE LESMAN, Community Relations Manager, Office of Children's Services (OCS), Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), said SB 105 has good language, but the department has a neutral position. He agreed with Ms. Sandoval's explanation. The front end work is the most urgent and OCS intends to initiate investigations, assess safety and risk to children, and prevent removing them from their homes if at all possible in the hopes that this will reduce the problems on the back end of the system. SENATOR ELLIS asked about the Child In Need Of Aid (CHINA) provisions. MR. LESMAN responded that those statutes have been cleaned up a great deal, like replacing the words "foster care" with "out-of- home care". Another is that this bill would allow the State of Alaska to maintain custody up to age 21 whereas currently with a couple of court orders they can only maintain custody up to age 20. 2:17:18 PM LAURA HEYWOOD, CASA Volunteer (court appointed special advocate), explained that they are appointed by the court to advocate for children who are in state custody for CHINA cases. They work with lots of professionals, but one difference is that they have very small case loads (one or two cases at a time). They are not professionals, but are trained by the program that is administered by the Office of Public Advocacy and supervised by their guardian ad litem. Ms. Heywood said she is also the vice president of Friends of Alaska CASA, which is the non- profit that raises money to support the CASA program. They do things like meet kids' needs that aren't covered elsewhere and support volunteers. MS. HEYWOOD said SB 105 promotes education to a higher level than before and has learned during her work just how important that is. Education is the only thing that can't be taken away from some of those children. 2:19:55 PM SENATOR THOMAS joined the meeting. MS. HEYWOOD said that in the five years she has worked with CASA she has advocated for six children. These children spent a lot of time in residential treatment because of the issues related to foster care. When those kids age out of care, they return to their communities where they may have no family so they don't have any connections to help them. She wanted to make a special pitch for this bill to help them with this transition. 2:21:28 PM KARL ECKSTROM, representing himself, Change Point, AK, supported SB 105. He said the Change Point has The Downtown Soup Kitchen that serves about 500 homeless people a day and the population of kids they serve who are in foster care is increasing. 2:22:34 PM AMANDA METIVIER, Statewide Coordinator, Facing Foster Care in Alaska, supported SB 105. She said she is also an alumni of the Alaska's foster care system and is currently a foster parent. She said the 38 percent of the young people who "age out" of foster care end up homeless; about 30 percent become incarcerated at some point and they have a high rate of teen pregnancy. They also have a high rate of utilization of public assistance. She said currently the state provides 10 tuition waivers annually for young people who age out. Statewide 28 youths are attending college on those waivers and 10 more youth are attending college without assistance from the tuition waiver. Anecdotally she said she came into foster care as a teenager, and by the time she came into state custody she was so far behind in school that she dropped out and had to deal with the stress and trauma of not only what happened in her home, but with having been removed from her home and being placed in a new family. She was lucky enough to have a social worker who helped her get a waiver and encouraged her to continue her education. At the time the state was offering five tuition waivers a year. Without that waiver she would not have finished her education, and she graduated last year with a Bachelor's Degree in social work. A lot of people who age out have no help. So if they don't get into a program right away, they don't wait around to try again because they have to make a living. They end up on the street. 2:25:16 PM REBECCA SHIRE, Statewide Representative, Facing Foster Care in Alaska, said she is currently in foster care. She supported SB 105. During her six years in custody she has attended seven different schools, four were in her first year of foster care. Throughout the year she switched between those first schools several times - as well as being home schooled. She was in and out of treatment that year as well. She had trouble making friends and had no lasting relationships. She said according to the U.S. Department of Education, students fall behind 4-6 months in their education with each placement change. She finally graduated late. She is now a social work major at UAA because of the tuition waiver. If she had not gotten it, she would probably not have continued her education. 2:27:37 PM REPRESENTATIVE GARA said the provisions in this legislation will make a huge difference in the lives of foster youth. The aim of the bill is to come up with feasible things that will make a difference in the lives of youth. The things that he feels are most important in this bill are: · Keeping youth in the same school - federal law says homeless youth should be able to stay in the same school as they move around. It has previously covered only youth awaiting foster care. This expands that protection. Obviously it's only in the same district; if it's feasible they do it. · Having provisions aimed at fixing the statistic that roughly 38 percent of youth coming out of foster care end up homeless. So this extends the assistance that was previously available to only that small number to all foster youth. It includes tuition waivers and ETV (employment training vouchers). These are not terribly expensive provisions. · Trying to solve the homeless problem. There is now one month of full rental help and a couple of other months with half of that. This extends it for up to six months rental help and then three months at half level. · Allowing foster youth to stay in foster care and on Medicaid until age 21. Not all youth are ready to leave foster care at 18. · Having an advisory provision. This bill provides for a monthly face-to-face visit. He said that these are fairly inexpensive fixes. 2:35:06 PM SENATOR ELLIS asked where Alaska stacks up compared to other states and how would that would change if this passes. REPRESENTATIVE GARA said he couldn't answer that question. SENATOR DYSON asked if keeping foster kids in the same school is currently financed through the school budget. REPRESENTATIVE GARA answered yes. SENATOR DYSON observed that they seem to be moving toward a model that requires the schools to fix a lot of the problems of non-functional families, and he wondered if it doesn't make more sense for the foster care system to do that. REPRESENTATIVE GARA replied that all of the provisions in the bill say "subject to funding from the state". CHAIR DAVIS said this bill prefers the money go directly to them, not through OCS, because that delays things. SENATOR DYSON said he agrees that it would be best for the money to go to the foster parents who would then provide transportation. 2:38:47 PM REPRESENTATIVE GARA responded that you can't force foster parents to be prefect; so if the parent isn't going to try to keep a kid in the same school, you have to work through OCS. SENATOR DYSON disagreed with that scenario. SENATOR THOMAS asked what the reason was for changing "out-of- home care" to "foster care". REPRESENTATIVE GARA answered that "foster care" is when a child is with an unrelated foster parent and "out-of-home care" is when a child is with a relative. Together they are supposed to encompass all kids who are in foster care. 2:40:20 PM SENATOR PASKVAN moved to adopt the proposed committee substitute for SB 105, labeled 26-LS0556\C, as the working document. There being no objection, version C was before the committee. SENATOR DYSON asked what the department's position is. MR. LESMAN responded that the department's position is neutral for the reasons stated previously. SENATOR DYSON asked if anything could be done to make it more palatable. MR. LESMAN said the biggest challenge in the bill has to do with the monetary living stipend. Existing language leaves a lot to be worked out. 2:43:22 PM SENATOR PASKVAN moved to report CS for SB 105 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There being no objection, CSSB 105(HSS) moved from committee.